UPDATE: After the article went live, the organization received a response from the public sector law firm representing Fullerton. (Ain’t it something what a little pressure can do!) Documents have been released. More on that later…

Having followed the fatal beating by Fullerton police officers of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man diagnosed with schizophrenia, activists with the Mind(ful) Liberation Project (MLP) filed a records request with the City Clerk’s Office on May 12 asking for information on official PD protocol for dealing with the mentally ill. Despite a time frame of ten business days for the agency to respond as required by California law, members of the Richmond, Virginia-based organization have yet to receive either a formal determination on their request nor a written notice allowing for an additional delay. Today marks 17 days of silence.

“We’re requesting manuals and documents that are relevant to how Fullerton police officers are trained in how they are supposed to be handling people with mental health concerns,” says Megan Osborn of the MLP. “We requested these documents because we believe that the way that they dealt with Kelly Thomas last year when they confronted him was not up to code.”